Oakland youth curfew proposed to help fight crime

Parents could be penalized under anticrime measure

Updated 1:28 pm, Monday, September 23, 2013

City Councilman Noel Gallo's proposed curfew would ban youths under 18 from public areas after 10 p.m.

City Councilman Noel Gallo's proposed curfew would ban youths under 18 from public areas after 10 p.m.

Photo: Ian C. Bates, The Chronicle

Oakland youth curfew proposed to help fight crime

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An Oakland city councilman, concerned that unsupervised teens contribute to - and are victims of - the city's high crime rate, plans to introduce a proposal this week to bar youth under the age of 18 from being out in public areas after 10 p.m.

The proposed curfew calls for fines, community service or even jail time for any unaccompanied child or teen found outside in a public area or inside a business between 10 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. any day of the week, said Councilman Noel Gallo, who will introduce his initiative at a City Council committee meeting this week.

The proposal says that anyone under 18 cannot remain in a street, park, public outdoor space or car between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., unless they are accompanied by an adult age 21 or over or involved in certain activities, like traveling to or from work, completing an errand on behalf of a parent or attending an official school, religious or city-sponsored recreational activity. It would also ban minors from being out and about during school hours, from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

The plan would also bar anyone under 18 from being inside an Oakland business during curfew hours and require that business owners send any unaccompanied juveniles home.

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Parents could be penalized if their children are found on the streets during curfew.

Deeply controversial

The curfew is deeply controversial in a city whose residents and leaders hold starkly different opinions about what leads to criminal behavior. Some argue that crime is a personal choice and others are quick to point out that criminal behavior is often the result of poverty, racism and urban neglect.

Oakland elected leaders have tried before, most recently in 2011, to enact a youth curfew, but have failed to get enough support. Among the concerns raised during previous council debates was that a curfew would tie up depleted police resources with minor arrests or unfairly punish otherwise law-abiding juveniles.

But Gallo, who was elected to the council in November and represents the city's Fruitvale district, said the continuing crime crisis in the city meant something needs to be done.

"I live in a neighborhood that is challenged by the robberies and prostitution and crime," he said. "We need to create the tools for our law enforcement to be able to reach young people.

"I am not doing a curfew to lock everybody up, but if I am going to be able to help children and young people. I need to get them off the street," Gallo added. "That's the problem we have here in Oakland: we are all feeling sorry about (crime), we are all crying about it, we are all praying about it, but we're not taking the proactive measure to keep our kids at home."

The plan got mixed reactions from leaders in the community.

"Most of these kids don't have parents that can keep them," said Rev. Billy Dixon, who leads At Thy Word Ministries in East Oakland. "Most of these kids don't have true adult supervision. Most of these kids are running away from dangerous situations. We need to get young people off the streets, but the way you're going about it will alienate them.

"And are they going to hold the people who live up in the hills accountable when their kids are out late at night?" Dixon added. "I don't think it will be done fair and right."

Kids 'don't belong on street'

But children don't belong on the street after 10 p.m., no matter what, said Bishop Bob Jackson, a city religious leader who said he supported implementing the curfew. "Young men are being criminalized whether they like it or not," Jackson said. "If you're underage you don't have any business out there at 10 or 11 at night. Your butt should be at home studying."

In a statement, Mayor Jean Quan did not say whether she would support the curfew, only that she is "committed to considering all the options available to keep Oakland safe" and questions the "track record" of curfews in curtailing crime.

Curfew laws have not been shown to cut crime in other cities, said Dan Macallair, executive director of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice in San Francisco and the author of a 1999 research paper on the policy.

"It is pretty ineffective," Macallair said of a curfew. "Most of it is for symbolic purposes. It is kind of the fallback policy for policymakers when they don't know what else to do."

Gallo's effort is an outline of what the city should do, he said. Once he introduces the plan at Thursday's meeting of the Rules and Legislation Committee, he will begin writing the details of the law.

"This is an introduction so from here I will work with the (city) administrator and the police chief to develop an implementation plan," Gallo said. "And the public and my fellow members of the council will also have a say."

Sweep up innocent teens

Gallo said he realizes his proposal will be controversial.

"It is going to get people's attention," he said. "There will probably be 400 people at my committee, which is good. I hope we get 5,000 people 'cause it gets people involved. It gets people out of their homes."

"Laws like this plainly restrict the rights of people to engage in perfectly lawful behavior," Risher said. "Does it really cause harm if a 17-year-old goes to a movie on a Friday night that gets out after 1o o'clock?"

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